what do we sing?

Often in the gospels, Jesus answers a question with a question. Here, in response to the question from the disciples of John the Baptist, Jesus gives an answer – tell John what you see and hear. John was in prison, knowing that he is likely to be killed, can you imagine the thoughts going through his head – was I doing the right thing, is it all going to be worth it, is Jesus is the one we've been waiting for?

We are now into the third week of Advent, the time when we wait: we anticipate the coming of  Jesus. We wait with the Jewish people from centuries ago, people who had been longing for a new future, for the promised one, the Messiah, the one who would save God’s people.  We wait with Mary and Joseph as they wait for the birth of their first child.  We wait for the time when God’s Kingdom will be realised in fullness.

For many this season of Advent is a time of preparing, shopping, waiting for Christmas to come - for family or gifts, for holidays and rest. But while we also wait for the celebration of Christmas, we wait to celebrate the birth of Jesus – the one who brings life, hope, joy, peace and love into our lives. We wait and celebrate that God chose to became human, to come as a baby, tiny and vulnerable; to be born to a unmarried teenager.

The disciples of John asked Jesus : are you the one we've been waiting for? Jesus said have a look around, what do you see, what stories to you hear about me, people are being healed, people are receiving new life, the poor are hearing good news. Jesus didn't answer yes or no, he told the disciples of John the Baptist to look around, and go and tell John what is happening.

Then Jesus says to the crowd: what did you go out into the desert to see, [here he is referring to John the Baptist]. Did you go out to see someone in fancy clothes, someone who would be blown around by each new idea. Jesus tells the crowd that John the Baptist was more than a Prophet, he was the one who was sent to proclaim, to announce, that the one they had been waiting for is coming and is here.

While Jesus was the one that the people of Israel had been waiting for, the promised one of God; Jesus didn't fit the mould of what people were expecting. Coming as a baby, healing, including, welcoming the outcasts, bringing good news to the poor. This isn't what people were expecting. They were waiting for the one who would free them from foreign rule. The people of Israel had been under foreign occupation many times, and at the time of the birth and life of Jesus they were under Roman rule. Jesus wasn't a warrior, he wasn't there to overthrow the Roman Imperial power by force. God in Jesus came to change people's lives, not only from the outside, but from the inside.

Advent is a time when we look toward the first and the final coming of Jesus into the world, and that can lead to some complicated theology, and long words. Some of that would make a great study and discussion session, this morning I want us to think about what the coming of Jesus means for each one of us. The coming of God in Jesus, his life and death and resurrection, the means of our salvation, a way in which we have been offered and accept new life.

Advent is an invitation for us to think about where God is born in our life each day. A few years ago one of the children at Engadine asked me if Jesus really was going to be born this Christmas Day, it was difficult to explain to a young child – but yes I am hopeful that once again this Christmas, we will stop long enough to be able to embrace the new things God is doing in our lives. We may not have time on Christmas Day with all the celebrations, but I invite you to find time either in the next week or in the time after Christmas day, to stop a while and to see where in your life Jesus is being born anew.

John the Baptist, and many of the Jewish people of the day were looking for a different Messiah to the one that God had sent. What are we expecting the coming Kingdom of God will be like? We get a glimpse in the Isaiah readings of the last two weeks as well as today – a place where all of creation will live in harmony, there will be no predators, and no victims; a place without drought, a place where there are streams in the desert, a place of healing, a place where none loses their way, and all who follow God sing, all who follow God live in joy.

The Psalm that we read for this week is not a Psalm, but is the song of Mary that she sings while she is visiting her cousin Elizabeth. This song is known as the Magnificat. I cannot imagine an unmarried teenage girl singing such brave words, particularly in a culture that would easily put her and her child to death. But sing she does; and she sings of a world that is not yet; a world that sounds very much like the vision of Isaiah, a world where the poor will have enough to eat, a world where the arrogant are humbled. Mary sings of the great things God has done in her life, and the great things God is doing.

Jesus told the disciples of John the Baptist to look around and see what was happening: what are the signs we see around us that Jesus is present in our lives and in the world. Where do we see signs of hope and healing; where do we see signs of new life, of transformation; where do we see signs of the poor receiving good news.

 

The next few months will be a time of transition for this congregation and for ...., a time when we will all need to trust God for a future that we cannot see at this point in time. Isaiah and Mary paint a picture of what the kingdom of God will be like, and we live in a time when that kingdom is coming into being, but is not fully here.

This will be a time when we will all need to look at where God is calling us to be. Just as Advent is a time of waiting, a season of anticipating a new future, we will need the signs of advent: hope, peace, joy and love; to be signs on our journey.

Are we able to sing with Mary of the great and wonderful things that God is doing?

 

Hymn/song 109 Tell out my soul